


Brave and Steady

by zephsomething



Series: Surviving the War [44]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-22
Updated: 2020-06-22
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:01:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24865738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zephsomething/pseuds/zephsomething
Summary: Neville and Hannah go to visit Neville's parents.
Relationships: Hannah Abbott & Neville Longbottom
Series: Surviving the War [44]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/813804
Comments: 9
Kudos: 19





	Brave and Steady

**Author's Note:**

> I'm using the & insteada the / because they aren't together yet in this fic. This is the New Year y'all, we're in 2004 now!

St. Mungo’s was covered in new years decorations when Neville and Hannah arrived. He always went to visit his parents on the new year but this is the first time he’d brought Hannah. In fact, it was the first time he’d ever brought Hannah to visit his parents.

The route to their room was familiar and with Hannah walking half a pace behind him he felt almost nervous. She always followed his lead when it came to his family but he was always nervous about how people would react to meeting his parents. Then he opened the door and gently pushed aside the curtain the mediwitches put up around his parents beds whenever he came to visit.

“Hi mum, dad.” He pulled the curtain back enough for both him and Hannah to walk through. “This is Hannah, she’s a friend of mine.”

There was a beat of silence where his parents nodded at them with the familiar expression of not quite understanding. Then Hannah smiled at them and Neville couldn’t see pity or kindness in her face, just a regular sort of smile. The knot in his chest started to unwind itself.

“I’ve known your son for a while.” She moved to one of the chairs provided as she spoke and Neville felt a lump form in his throat. “He was a good kid and he’s grown into a wonderful man.”

“Lies and slander.” Neville muttered as he sat in the seat beside her.

“It is not.” She glared at him before turning back to his parents. In her eyes he could see a warm sort of pride and the lump got bigger. “Did he ever tell you what he did during the year hogwarts was occupied by death eaters?”

His mum made a distressed noise and his dad moved from his own bed to sit next to her. Even with everything that had happened to them nothing had been able to remove how much they cared about each other.

“Don’t worry they’re all gone now.” Hannah’s voice took on a soothing sort of quality, the kind of voice she used in the small hours of the morning when they’d both woken from dreams neither of them wanted to talk about. “He used to practice so hard, every spell and counter curse he taught he practiced until he could do it better than almost anyone else. Back in the day we used to joke that he could have been a hufflepuff.”

“Different reasons.” Neville felt a chuckle bubble up as she said it. It had been a common debate during that year, what exactly the different houses meant.

“Right, he’s entirely to noble for hufflepuff your son.” Hannah grinned and Neville’s dad made a noise that might have meant anything. “He used to tell stories too, in the room of requirement when the younger ones needed to focus on something other than what was going on in the halls. Memorized all the Beetle the Bard Tales, plus dozens of muggle tales too. He’d start telling a story and all the kids would come over, group up around him. Ginny might have made them feel safe enough to be brave but Neville gave them hope.”

Neville snorted, it seemed like an exaggeration of what exactly his role had been that year.

“You did. Why did you think all the kids listened to you?” She turned a raised eyebrow on him and he shrugged. “You were one of the generals Nev, keeping us all safe and directing the resistance. You were vital, especially once Luna got snatched.”

“But Ginny-”

“Ginny was creative, terrifying, ruthless, and entirely unapproachable. Luna was just as likely to confuse as explain for all she is brilliant with her charms.” Her arms were crossed now and she was turned entirely in her chair to face him. “Just accept that you were important to people.”

His mum reached out to pat Hannah’s knee, making a shushing sort of sound.

“Oh, sorry ma’am I didn’t mean to sound upset.” Hannah turned to his mum with an apologetic sort of smile. “Nev’s infuriating though, insists on thinking he’s no good at anything important.”

“I’m only good with plants.”

“And kids. You’re the herbology professor and the head of Gryffindor house.” She rolled her eyes. “Plus you got NEWTs in charms, care of magical creatures, and defense against the dark arts as well.”

“Yeah, well...”

“And you helped me put the greenhouses back together after the battle.” Hannah turned to grin at his parents. “It was lovely really, we went out and charmed all the glass back together, re-potted plants, and calmed the ones that were all in a dither about the whole thing.”

There was a moment of silence while Neville tried to think of something to say but it was Hannah who managed to come up with something first.

“Did he tell you about Pompey? She’s our house-elf, sort of.” She paused a moment, as though giving his parents time to respond. “She’s brilliant with plants, I often find her and Neville out in the garden comparing notes on how best to charm certain plants. If he’s not out there he’s usually going over and over his lists of kids.”

“Wouldn’t want to mix them up.” He mumbled rubbing the back of his neck.

“His whole list has all these tiny notes next to each kid.” She leaned towards his parents with a conspiratorial air about her. “Keeps track of every little thing he does, from which ones need homework help to how best to approach them about things going wrong or suspected nightmares.”

“Well I can’t go about mixing them up, it could be disastrous.” Neville grinned, the kids were a much easier topic to talk about than himself. Before Hannah could speak again he launched into a story about a couple of the shenanigans one of his kids had gotten up to this year.

Later when they went to leave his mum handed him a bubblegum wrapper but this time when he went to take it with a quiet “thanks mum” she wrapped her hands around his. One gentle squeeze and then she drifted off again towards her bed and his dad. It felt almost like pride and Neville felt something inside him unknot, it wasn’t exactly progress but it was something and that was enough.

As they left St. Mungo’s Hannah linked her arm with his and that also felt nothing like pity or kindness either, just a warm steady weight against him. He nodded as she suggested stopping by the Weasley’s joke shop as they were out and about anyway.


End file.
